Swift: programming language

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. and the open-source community.

Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

Apple created Swift, an open-source programming language, as a replacement for all languages based on C, including Objective C, C++, and C. The language was created in 2014 and released to the public as an open-source project in 2015 on Swift.org.

Swift defines away large classes of common programming errors by adopting modern programming patterns:

• Variables are always initialized before use.
• Array indices are checked for out-of-bounds errors.
• Integers are checked for overflow.
• Optionals ensure that nil values are handled explicitly.
• Memory is managed automatically.
• Error handling allows controlled recovery from unexpected failures.

// Basic Swift Program
import UIKit

var str1 = “Hello geeks!”
var str2 = “How are you?”
print (str1)
print (str2)

Output:

Hello geeks!
How are you?

Note: Import statement is used to import any objective-C framework or library directly into Swift program. var keyword is used for variable and let keyword is used for constant. There is no need of ; for termination, in case programmer uses it compiler won’t show error.

Disadvantages –

• The language is still quite young and the talent pool is limited.
• Swift is considered a “moving target” as it is a new language and the number of swift programmers is few.
• Poor interoperability with third-party tools and IDEs
• Lack of support for earlier iOS versions.

Is Swift frontend or backend?

Is Swift a frontend or backend language? The answer is both. Swift can be used to build software that runs on the client (frontend) and the server (backend).

Is Swift easier than Python?

Not only does its simple syntax and hand-holding help you develop faster, but it also lives up to its name: As stated on apple.com, Swift is up to 2.6x faster than Objective-C and 8.4x faster than Python.

Is Swift in demand?

Swift in 2022

Swift remains in the top ten most demanded programming languages, while iOS apps are popular. According to Statista, in 2019, 1.84 million mobile apps were available for download on the App Store. And the number of iOS applications is growing every year.